TGS 2006: Gunpey

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Two very different versions of Gunpey show equal admiration for PSP and DS.

By Nix

Gunpey is something of a romantic notion of a videogame, something to keep very close to your heart if you are so stricken. The title, originally a puzzle game by a crew working with the late game maker Gunpei Yoko, derives its name from the beloved designer. It's always been a simple title -- another in an endless line of blocks and shapes making forms before the well fills up -- but its creative and manic gameplay is fittingly alive and well, finally brought back into action with new versions for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable.

The demos of the two versions of Gunpey on display at TGS showed the two entirely different mindsets that these handheld platforms have inspired. For the PSP game, we get a cool and cyber-styled game that looks like Lumines after some fine wine, a sexy puzzler called Gunpey Reverse; for the DS, its party time on a portable with a game that's 10x crazier than Samba De Amigo in style and character design, utilizing the touchpad for whisking away blocks to the calypso beat in the title Oto wo Tsungaou! Gunpey Reverse. Not surprisingly, the supervising production team on this new set of versions is the same that brought to handheld Lumines and Meteos, and both have the stamp of their creator across every element of design.

DS Gunpey

Both games are essentially the same when you get down to it. You are presented with a number of parts of lines in a well that is raising towards the top. Using only up and down movements by swapping the tiles, you want to make a line that connects straight across to the other side, almost like a pipe connecting one end to another. If you can then connect more line parts to that line (or set of lines), you get bonuses for continuing the building before the full shape breaks away and disappears. You can pull more shapes from the bottom if you don't have any line pieces that work, but if you hit the top of the well, you lose your game.

For the DS game, the color and music is designed to completely overwhelm you as you make your lines. The game features a tropical theme (although characters are often in some sort of armor) and is bursting with colors in its characters and backgrounds. Gameplay is still the same as Gunpey has ever been, but because the stylus lets you move shapes around faster and more easily (and also to make mistakes more completely if you're not careful, although that's not a knock on the gameplay -- you're simply moving so fast sometimes that you don't realize you missed a block when setting up combos and then have to scramble with your stylus to catch it), it's more of a party vibe. Also, because the game is on the double-screen DS, the option to battle other characters with one on the opposite screen is played up. There also looks to be something of a simple story mode as the game follows the multiple characters.

PSP Gunpey

For the PSP version, the designers have styled it after Lumines, right down to the skins concept. It's a Music x Puzzle concept, where the techno and pop beats in the background should slowly influence your play (when you make a line, the game holds as you make more connections, so mastering the beat of the music should help you fold up your shapes better.) Skins are often more animated and active than either version of Lumines, with backgrounds that include full-motion elements such as a car race and a skateboarder on a ramp and a disco party -- however, each skin is still very much stylized (the car game, for instance, is an old-school scrolling racer like Rad Mobile, with a red car and entirely black-and-white city graphics.) One cool thing about this game is that you can actually change skins on the fly (depending on the mode you choose -- there's Single Skin, Multi Skin, 10x10 Mode and more.) Without any kind of load, the game twinkles and switches to an entirely new skin and set of music on the fly.

Both versions of Gunpey look to be a blast, with the DS version due out on October 26th here in Japan and the PSP version a little later on in 2006 (for DS, the game is 100% done, for PSP, it's 80% completed.) Both games have also been penciled in for US release at some point. The wide range of options and varied styles of play should make both versions very compelling for whichever system you own, and because both games are unique in style and play, you might even want to pick both up. Look for further impressions of both at release.